We’ve devoted a lot of coverage concerning how city schools have been pivoting to accommodate the influx of migrant children into our school system, but our friends over at DocumentedNY have taken a closer look at one 6th grader’s personal journey to get here. Kenyon Madera Vazquez traveled across seven countries — often with painful blisters on his feet — with his mother before becoming a student at PS/MS 5 in the Bronx.
Vazquez shares a bed with his mother at a local shelter, and usually finds himself still hungry after both school lunch and food at the shelter. He also often falls asleep in class, but does enjoy school and has made friends with other children who speak his language—many whom are also Venezuelan. While the school’s staff and shelter’s social worker have checked in on Vazquez and his mother on a surface level, there hasn’t been more in depth support for Vazquez and what he’s endured. Despite the initiative Mayor Eric Adams has put in place, Vazquez’s story shows how much additional support is needed for migrant families who have come to the city and enrolled in city schools. Read more here.
